Portrait Painting Archive
Among the different types of paintings, Portrait Paintings are comprehensive ways to capture a man’s glory, disposition or social stance in one single moment. It is a style which quickly captures the viewer’s attention and gives a quick glimpse in the past of the depicted person or group. Portrait paintings stand strong among the other types of paintings.
Definition of Portrait
According to Oxford Dictionary, “A painting, drawing, photograph, or engraving of a person, especially one depicting only the face or head and shoulders.”
Though, the last words of the definition aren’t the mandatory properties of a portrait as the type has grown into much more complex and various ways of depicting a person.
Comprehensive Depiction
Portraits could represent a person, an artist or a group of people. They are just the simple depictions of people. Still, they aren’t just profiles of the persons. Sometimes, portraits could tell us more history about the contemporary times than a city’s landscape from the same era.
For instance, during the Dutch Golden age, people were afraid of expressing their pride through an extravagant portrait as it was considered bad during the time. Thus, the total of more than 1 million portraits from that time were mostly dull, expressionless and similar. You won’t get this information in the brilliant vista of a cityscape.
Even the most famous painting in the world is also a portrait. Other famous paintings like Girl with a Pearl Earring and American Gothic are also different types of portrait as you would know about them in detail at here.
Artists would generally have very limited space to include any significant object in the portrait as compared to a Landscape Painting or a Still Life Painting where he can add all the objects he could imagine. Thus, the included objects, scenes, background or other elements would be chosen very carefully to represent the accurate impression of the person or persons portrayed. Artist would care of the littlest details to represent the disposition or the concurrent impression of the person and would eliminate any redundant objects or implications. It is somewhat similar to still-life in which every included element generally holds some meaningful symbolism.
Thus, portraits could embody the person’s disposition, general impression, importance, significance, background, stance in society, history, a specific phase or the whole society’s outlook through a single representative person.
Types of Portraits
According to the subject, context or need of the artist, portrait paintings have developed many types to distinguish or signify different characteristics. Each type has been developed over the different centuries or ages and have matured in today’s portraits. This, findings and techniques of portrait paintings have significantly helped the portrait photography in modern times. You can find a mode called “portrait” in your phone’s camera. The term is derived from here, obviously.
If you haven’t read our post on the Different Types of Portraits, you can read about it on the given link.
Loading...
A well-known painting by the Dutch artist Jan van Eyck for the breath-taking depiction and also for the hidden “Easter egg.” The painting is of the Italian merchant Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife, also commissioned by him to portray his marriage. The genre or the painting has been called as Double portrait or sometimes as the primitive genre painting after renaissance as it depicted a marriage – a real life, “normal” incident. The room is presumed to be merchant’s own house in Bruges. The dog at their feet is the early breed of today’s Griffon Bruxellois. The Arnolfini Wedding Analysis Most historians take the double portrait as the wedding scene or the representation of their marriage. There are some alleged proofs to support this claim. […]
Read More...
Burning Candle, Convex Mirror, Couple, Dog, Double Portrait, Dutch, Easter Egg, Famous, Full Length Portrait, Marriage, Orange, Pentimento, Removed Shoes, Wedding
Loading...
The showcased piece of art is from the Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte. It was painted in 1964. It showcases a simple depiction of a person standing. In background is visible sea, cloudy sky and a low, brick wall. The person has worn an overcoat, with red tie and a bowler hat. Thus the whole composition doesn’t include any fancy stuff. Though, the apparent catch is in the face where right in front of the character’s face is a green apple. As intriguing and unforgivable impact the painting makes on a general audience, the philosophy behind such unique arrangement is also equally interesting. The Son of Man philosophy and Analysis Although, most of the artists do not answer in clear way about the motif of the their […]
Read More...
Belgian, Bowler hat, Famous, Hat, Man, Man in Suit, Man with Hat, Sea, Surrealist
Loading...
Ramon de Zubiaurre lived through a period marred by two wars, the sinister advent of global credit systems and ideologies that required the breaking of families. However, the two world wars in de Zeubiaurre’s lifetime are telling enough about what moods his paintings would evoke. Although it is not sorrow that flows out of it, you can see a depiction of negative social changes in all his works – even if he did not paint a perfectly-normal-looking-mother-daughter portrait, in which the mother’s cigarette and plunging neckline would evoke questions. While today we see strong advices against tobacco smoking, it was no different, at least for women, it times that preceded Ramon de Zubiaurre’s career. The painter died in 1969, before which he saw a change […]
Read More...
Daughter, Double Portrait, Half Length Portrait, Mother, Motherhood, Spanish, Spanish Woman
Loading...
Two simple American faces, one staring at us and another staring away blankly. A pitchfork in the man’s hand and an American Gothic house in the background. These simple things have made the picture so popular that it has appeared in almost all kind of media in modern times. From the Simpsons to The Rocky Horror Picture Show and from the every magazine (such as Time) to big movies, the painting has appeared, parodied, copied numerous times. Today it enjoys the similar popularity gained by other iconic paintings like The Scream by Edvard Munch and Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. The gloomy faces of the couple may have indicated them as being a couple in their old times and having not-so-well life. But, an […]
Read More...
American, Americana, Daughter, Double Portrait, Famous, Father, Half Length Portrait, Iconic
Loading...
Sometimes referred also as Barbara Dmitrievna Mergassov Rimsky-Korsakova, the “Madame Barbe de Rimsky Korsakov” is a portrait of Russian aristocrat woman. It was painted in 1864 by the German painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter. Identity of the Woman At some places, it is suggested that the woman is the same person who married to the famous Russian music composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov due to the same endings of the name and the same time-period of their births. But, there is no full evidence about it as some important sources suggests Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova to be the composer’s wife. Other speculations are that she also appeared in Russian writer Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel Anna Karenina. But, the identity of the portrayed woman isn’t firmly definite. Art analysis The portrait […]
Read More...
Aristocrat, Beautiful, Beautiful Woman, Russian, Russian Woman, Three Quarter Length Portrait
Loading...
La fornarina was a skillful depiction by high-renaissance artist Raphael. It resembles with Leonardo’s Mona Lisa in terms of the posture, use of the model and the alleged idea behind the portrait. It also includes some elements of popular painting style Chiaroscuro which Raphael borrowed from Caravaggio. La Fornarina, Raphael’s Mistress It is said that the model seated for the portrait was Raphael’s real life model called Margarita Luti. The title of the painting means “the baker’s daughter”. According to Giorgio Vasari, the renaissance period art historian, Raphael was “a very amorous man’ and often looking for ‘amorous pleasures’. Allegedly, during his life he had many mistresses one after another, including daughters of his patrons. Margarita Luti appeared in Raphael’s another portrait La Velata as […]
Read More...
Beautiful, Beautiful Woman, Chiaroscuro, Famous, Italian, Italian Woman, Mistress, Nude Woman, Roman Woman, Sexy Woman, Symbolism, Three Quarter Length Portrait, Three Quarter View Portrait
Loading...
Whistler’s mother is an oil-on-canvas painting by American-born painter James McNeil Whistler revealed in 1871. The real name of the painting is Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, but in general, it is more famous as Whistler’s Mother. It is now reckoned as one of the most famous paintings in the world and has been described as an American Icon and “Victorian Mona Lisa”. It is a painting depicting artist’s mother, Anna McNeil Whistler. She is sitting on a chair with ease- her left side towards us- and looking straight. The emotions on the face of quite, cold and the natural discerning peace are portrayed vividly. As if, she is living her most quiet and peaceful years. After the revelation, the painting got much […]
Read More...
American, Famous, Full Length Portrait, Mother, Motherhood, Old Woman, Profile Portrait, Sitting Woman
Loading...
Lady with an Ermine is one of the four ladies painted by Leonardo, other three being Mona Lisa, La belle ferronnière and Ginevra de’ Benci. The Lady with an Ermine has segments of Pentimento as by radiography. A window has been detected on the upper right side, which was deleted later on by the artist. The painting consist some work called “Moti Mentali” meaning mental emotions. The term was mostly referred to Leonardo’s work and means the artist’s ability to depict the real mental thoughts, emotions and disposition of the subject on his/her face. That’s the painting has been described as “signaling a breakthrough in the art of psychological portraiture.” Another noticeable element is artist’s little use of his well-known style of Sfumato around the subject’s […]
Read More...
Famous, Half Length Portrait, Italian, Italian Woman, Kit Cat Portrait, Mistress, Moti Mentali, Pentimento, Pet, Sfumato, Symbolism, Three Quarter View Portrait
Loading...
Pablo Picasso’s second most expensive painting of all the time. The boy sitting in blue clothes with red-brownish background and flower paints on the wall is having a smoking pipe in his hand and a garland on his head. Picasso was around 24 years old when he painted this art-piece. Moreover, the painting belongs to his Rose Period. Apparently, it was the time, when Picasso was painting the natural figure before he jumped into the Cubism Movement, which gave us the Guernica. The latest price of the panting in May, 2004 was around $104 million ($129 million with adjusted price inflation), which was highest price for a painted sold at an auction. The recent trend to buy a painting at big price tag just because the […]
Read More...
Boy, Famous, Garland, Picasso's Rose Period, Pipe, Smoking, Three Quarter Length Portrait
Loading...
Hombre de Fuensaldana by Ramon de Zubiaurre is one of the social-relevance type paintings, with focus on the individual – rather than society. However, the importance of the individual’s location is paramount, as I guessed it would be when I was about to enter the de Zubiaurre special features gallery. At the same time, I should admit that there is not a world of difference between this one and the other works, although it seems the Spanish painter did not put in an effort to glorify the man or his story with the brush strokes. It seems that the subject has a degree of attachment to the nobility – or maybe he is a learned man who seeks such an attachment. The castle is big […]
Read More...
Bust Portrait, Castle, Fuensaldaña, Hat, Head and Shoulders Portrait, Man, Mountain, Spanish, Three Quarter View Portrait
